Elmore Leonard Flick Wins State Film Incentive
DETROIT (WWJ) - A movie based on the work of a Michigan author has been approved for a film incentive from the state. The flick "Freaky Deaky" was awarded more than $2.8 million dollars in tax credits.
Based on Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name, the film is set in Detroit and follows a former group of 60's radicals when they meet again in 1974.
"Elmore Leonard stands shoulder to shoulder among Michigan's most noteworthy authors, and we are thrilled that 'Freaky Deaky', a story that unfolds across the city of Detroit, will be shot right here where it belongs," said Carrie Jones, director of the Michigan Film Office.
"This project will employ our workforce and infrastructure, showcase our state, and highlight the work of Elmore – a great Michigan talent. It is a terrific project and an exciting Pure Michigan opportunity," said Jones.
Leonard, a graduate of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and the University of Detroit, has called Michigan home since the age of nine. "Freaky Deaky" will be the fourteenth of Leonard's 44 novels to be adapted to film, but the first adaptation to be filmed entirely in Michigan.
"This is the best news I've heard about Michigan's participating in feature films," Leonard said.
State film credits, introduced three years ago to lure the movie industry, will likely be capped at $25 million a year in upcoming budgets.
"Freaky Deaky" is the eighth project approved under the new policy and guidelines issued by the Michigan Film Office. In 2011, 10 projects have been approved with $15,852,419 in incentives being awarded on $38,197,616 of approved production expenditures for the year. These projects are expected to create 1,121 Michigan hires with a full time equivalent of 256 jobs.
While best-known for his crime and suspense novels, Leonard also had a hand in the creation of the TV show "Justified". The currently-airing FX series is based on the popular Leonard character U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens from the novels "Pronto" and "Riding the Rap" and the short story "Fire in the Hole."
